Cullen to Sens, Olympic Roster Freeze at 3

There's less than three hours until the Olympic Roster freeze. In other words, there should be some activity between now and then. Too bad I'll be on my way to The Slope for some hoops. I'll be able to check for updates on my phone but won't be around to post till later.

Anyway, there was one deal made with the Canes sending Matt Cullen to Ottawa for Alexandre Picard and a second round pick. Wise move for both sides as Carolina continues to sell while remaining competitive (anyone catch their latest win over Buffalo last night???) and the Sens add a solid versatile pivot with Cup experience as they make their push for first in the Northeast. Saw this on Twitter from a great Sabre fan and can't say I blame her:

ShanV11

  

Can someone go wake up Darcy pleeeeaaase? #Sabres #NHLTrade

If Ryan Miller's tirade following the game can't, they're in trouble. As for what else is going on, Donald Brashear, who had the audacity to take a shot at Colton Orr, has cleared waivers. Huggy Bear. If this was 7-8 years ago when you could play, okay. Reality check. And what do you know? The guy he cheapshotted/replaced Blair Betts just re-upped with the Flyers. Irony much?!?!?!?!?!

The following players have been put on waivers:

Jonathan Cheechoo (Ott)
Jamie Lundmark (Cgy)
Brad May (Det)


Florida is still looking to pull something off before the deadline. Will they trade with the Rangers? Alright. I gotta run out. See ya later!

Nothing sweet about Candy Canes for Islanders

So much for turning it around in Raleigh. Instead, Scott Gordon's Islanders dropped a third straight against the suddenly resurgent Candy Canes by a count of 4-1. There was nothing sweet about this one as they managed to fall behind by two and never recovered.

“You give a team, no matter where they are in the standings, the type of chances we gave them, you’re not going to win games,” disappointed lone scorer Matt Moulson said after netting his 20th to break Cam Ward's shutout bid with 4:31 left. “They’re a team that’s hot. We knew that and we came out pretty sluggish.”

Coming off a home blowout loss at the hands of the Caps with a chance to push ahead of the idle Rangers into playoff position, instead the Islanders allowed sizzling new Carolina captain Eric Staal to keep it going when he netted his third in 24 hours versus New York teams. In their 5-1 blowout of the Rangers, he tallied twice. This time, the franchise center came out of the corner and steered home his own rebound converting on the power play at 9:19. Brandon Sutter and ex-Ranger Matt Cullen added assists.

It didn't take long for the Hurricanes to extend the lead when the aforementioned Cullen got to a loose puck and fired a quick wrister from the right circle through a maze past Rick DiPietro 2:53 later. A battle tested player who could be on the way out, Cullen's turned it up this month with points in six of his last seven including his 10th goal and a helper last night. He's up to a dozen points (2-10-12) in January. Dating back to Dec.26, almost half (2-14-16) his season total 34 points have come over that period. The 33 year-old vet is versatile and can help someone. Might the center starved Devils be interested?

After being outscored by two and outshot 12-9, the Isles mustered little in a second that featured a combined eight shots with just three from the visitors- making life easy for Ward. In fact, an acrobatic DiPietro save kept it competitive. His teammates finally turned it up in the third outshooting Carolina 15-5. However, they remained stymied when Andrew Alberts went off for hooking. With an opportunity to get right back in it, the Isles were victimized by fourth liner Stephane Yelle for a crushing shorthanded goal just 21 seconds following the penalty. Mark Streit got caught pinching, allowing Pat Dwyer to push the puck out to Yelle who then skated down the left wing before wisely using Islander captain Doug Weight as a screen from the left circle. His first goal in 28 games went between Weight's legs past DiPietro's right glove to the goalie's chagrin. Not a good goal to give up.

Down three, Moulson hit 20 when Frans Nielsen slipped a pass to him for a quick shot to finally beat Ward. A nice reward for a camp steal who's wound up as the club's top finisher three ahead of rookie John Tavares. His 33 points are tied with JT91 for second behind Kyle Okposo's 36. Where would they be without him? Unfortunately, that was as close as they got with Staal finding Jussi Jokinen for an empty netter with 45 ticks left, sealing it.

Hillen Out 6-8 Weeks With Broken Jaw: As has been known the past couple of days stemming from a scary moment when defenseman Jack Hillen took an Alexander Ovechkin shot right to the chin, he's out six to eight weeks with a broken jaw. It looked a lot worse with the puck appearing to strike his mouth bloodying him. Islanders team medics quickly got to the ice to treat him and help him off the ice as a stunned Ovechkin watched with his head down Tuesday.

Signed as a free agent a couple of years ago, the just turned 24 year-old from Minnesota has evolved into a solid player under Gordon. After getting into 40 games and posting a goal and five assists last year, he'd become a regular on the blueline contributing two goals and career highs in assists (14), points (16), penalty minutes (36), power play points (5) and games (49). Already minus Radek Martinek (done for season) and Brendan Witt (IR), it's just one more obstacle the Islanders will have to overcome. Yesterday's recall Dustin Kohn played 12 minutes finishing minus-one.

BONY 3 Stars:

3rd Star-Matt Moulson, NYI (20th of season, 3 SOG, +1 in 19 shifts-13:46)
2nd Star-Eric Staal, Car (PPG/assist, 2 SOG, 7-7 draws, +1 in 19:15)
1st Star-Matt Cullen, Car (GW/assist, 5 SOG, 4-5 draws, +1 in 19:21)

Rangers Sign Lundquist to 1 Year Deal

Franchise goaltender, Henrik Lundquist, has agreed to a one year $4.25 Million contract. This signing ended up being a compromise for both sides - allowing the Ranger a little more cap room for this year than a long term $5 Million+ contract would have provided. It is also probably more than Lundquist would have received in arbitraton, which obviously both parties preferred to avoid. It is expected that the two sides will hammer out a long term extention after January 1, which will not effect this year's cap.

The Blueshirts can probably now avoid arbitration hearings by signing Avery and Hossa and still stay under the pre-season limit of $55.33 Million. But even under the assumption that Kasparaitis is sent to Hartford at the beginning of training camp, they will almost certainly have to shed some more salary by trading or demoting at least one more player, in order to stay below the regular season upper cap limit of $50.3 Million. The most tradable player right now is Matt Cullen, whose $2.8 Million cap hit, could do the job nicely. This is assuming that the Rangers feel that Dubinsky, Pyatt or Anisimov are ready to step up now.

Ranger Tradewinds: A Hurricane or a Bunch of Hot Air?

On another slow news day for the Rangers, I offer up this speculative tidbit.

With Carolina reportedly seeking a third line center and former Hurricane, Matt Cullen, one of the three most likely Rangers to be traded (along with Marek Malik and Paul Mara) in order to free up cap space, could Cullen be headed back to Carolina? There are no specific rumors out there (other than this one) regarding this potential trade, but depending upon the priorities of GMs Glen Sather and Jim Rutherford (who apparently is shopping a defenseman to acquire the center), it could make sense for both of them.

Sam Weinman, the Rangers beat reporter for The Journal News, expects the Rangers “to close in on something fairly soon”. However, it remains anyone’s guess as to which one of the known “somethings” is closed first.